Ethics 


OF  THE 


Engineering  Profession 


BY 


VICTOR  C.  ALDERSON, 

Dean 

OF 

Armour  Institute  of  Technology 

[ Reprinted  from  the  Railroad  Digest,  January,  igoi. 


UNIVERSITY  OF 
ILLINOIS  LIBRARY 
AT  URBANA-CHAMPAIGN 
BOOKSTACKS 


Ethics  of  the  Engineering  Profession. 


The  work  of  the  professional  man,  he  lie  doctor,  lawyer,  clergyman 
or  engineer,  always  bears  some  direct  relation  to  well-defined  fundamental 
principles.  These  principles  may  result  from  the  experience  of  humanity, 
they  may  come  from  a priori  reasoning,  or  they  may  rest  upon  combina- 
tions of  these  two.  But  no  profession  can  be  regarded  as  stable  until 
it  has  such  a body  of  wcll-establishel  principles  as  will  guide  a member 
of  the  profession  in  determining  the  actual  value  of  his  work,  will  teach 
him  that  his  calling  is  honorable  to  himself  and  valuable  to  the  community, 
and  will  determine  what  line  of  action  may  elevate  the  profession  and 
instill  into  him  the  lesson  that  he  must  do  nothing  to  bring  reproach  upon 
his  chosen  profession.  In  a word,  they  give  him  ideals  to  struggle  for,  and 
to  struggle  for  an  ideal  is  the  only  method  of  gaining  true  and  lasting 
satisfaction.  Pure  professional  success,  as  distinguished  from  mere  money 
getting,  depends  upon  acting  in  harmony  with  these  principles. 

A trade  may  be  distinguished  from  a profession  in  that  it  does  not 
recognize  the  importance  of  these  basal  principles.  Kot  that  the  man  at 
the  bench,  the  machine,  or  the  loom,  does  not  need  guiding  principles  in 
his  work,  but  that  they  assume  a distinctly  subordinate  place.  The  pro- 
fessional man  must  be  a broader  man,  must  have  a wider  grasp  of  relations, 
must  have  the  ability  to  solve  new  complications,  must  be  the  leader  and 
the  thinker  as  well  as  the  doer.  The  machinist  may  run  his  machine,  but 
the  mechanical  engineer  understands  machinery.  The  electrician  may  close 
the  circuit,  but  the  electrical  engineer  understands  polyphase  machinery. 
The  engine  man  may  open  the  throttle,  but  the  railway  engineer  under- 
stands railroading.  The  engineer,  whatever  his  specialty  may  be,  must 
base  his  practice  upon  the  well-established  laws  of  nature.  If  he  belongs 
to  the  group  of  the  successful . rather  than  the  unsuccessful  engineers  he 
must  have  plain,  practical  sense,  a scientific  education,  tact,  business 
abilit<r  and  a strong  personality. 

The  principles  which  underlie  the  legal  profession,  no  matter  what 
the  lawyer  may  regard  as  professional  ethics  in  a particular  case,  are 
statutes  and  the  common  law — that  is,  crystallized  human  experience. 
These  laws  form  the  principles  upon  which  he  aims  to  decide  between 
right  and  wrong,  between  justice  and  injustice,  and  his  work,  except  in 
certain  criminal  cases  where  the  facts  of  guilt  alone  are  to  be  proved, 
consists  largely  in  properly  fitting  each  new  case  under  some  one  of 
the  numerous  general  cases.  _ The  two  parties  to  a suit  merely  urge  the 
application  of  different  principles,  and  the  ultimate  reason  for  legal 
wrangles  is  that  the  fundamental  principles,  according  to  which  judgment 
is  formed,  are  of  purely  human  origin  : consequently,  they  arc  in  a -state  of 
change,  of  evolution.  For  this  reason  the  determination  of  right  aiW 


time,  in  justifying  his  belief  in  the  corpuscular  theory  of  light,  said  that 
his  “chief  objection  to  the  undulatory  theory  was  that  he  could  not  think 
the  Creator  guilty  of  so  clumsy  a contrivance  as  the  filling  of  space  with 
ether  in  order  to  produce  light.”  Less  than  thirty  years  ago  I heard  an 
instructor  in  one  of  the  universities  of  this  State  advise  his  class  that 
the  writings  of  Darwin  and  Spencer  were  dangerous  reading  for  young 
men.  So  thoroughly  in  sympathy  have  been  the  narrow  intellects  of  all 
centuries  in  their  inhospitable  treatment  of  the  truth!  With  all  its  won- 
ders and  triumphs,  the  crowning  glory  of  the  nineteenth  century  is  that, 
in  its  closing  years,  men  ceased  to  fear  the  truth.  ^You  have  enjoyed  a 
great  privilege  in  receiving  your  education  in  the  last  decade  of  this  cen- 
tury, and  at  this  Institute,  where  truth  has  always  been  a welcome  guest, 
although  he  now  and  then  turns  into  the  street  some  aged,  familiar  loung- 
er about  the  porch  of  the  temple  of  learning.  It  is  only  recently  that  the 
established  belief  regarding  the  composition  of  air  was  rudely  ejected. 

Now,  what  of  the  future?  It  gives  to  the  young  ipen  who  are  about  to 
start  on  their  careers,  notably  to  those  of  your  profession,  golden  promises 
of  success.  At  the  opening  of  the  last  century  Nature  was  man’s  master. 
Modern  civilization  has  been  a series  of  conquests  over  Nature.  Year  by 
year,  as  the  new  century  unfolds,  greater  and  greater  triumphs  will  be 
achieved,  and  you  will  participate  in  the  work  of  making  the  results  of 
these  victories  available  for  the  welfare  and  advancement  of  mankind. 
Greece  and  Rome,  with  all  their  superiority  in  literature  and  art,  in  phi- 
losophy and  jurisprudence,  gave  to  the  world  no  great  inventions.  The 
Middle  Ages  covered  Europe  with  cathedrals  of  unsurpassed  beauty  and 
grandeur,  but  made  no  new  discoveries  to  lighten  the  toil  or  increase  the 
comfort  of  the  race.  According  to  Wallace,  only  seven  practical  discov- 
eries and  inventions  of  the  first  magnitude  were  made  from  the  dawn  of 
history  to  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century:  Alphabetical  writ- 
ing, Arabic  numerals,  printing,  the  barometer  and  thermometer,  the  mar- 
iner’s compass,  the  telescope,  and  the  steam  engine.  To  the  nineteenth 
century  alone  he  assigns  thirteen  such  discoveries  and  inventions:  Rail- 
ways, steamships,  electric  telegraphs,  the  telephone,  Lucifer  matches, 
gas  illumination,  electric  lighting,  photography,  the  phonograph,  the 
Roentgen  rays,  spectrum  analysis,  anaesthetics,  and  antiseptic  surgery. 

Opinons  will  differ  as  to  the  correctness  of  these  lists.  To  the  first, 
I should  add  gunpowder,  the  screw,  and  what  Gladstone  called  the  great- 
est of  man’s  inventions,  because  there  was  nothing  in  nature  to  suggest 
it — the  wheel;  and,  in  the  second,  I should  include  vaccination,  the  cot- 
ton gin,  the  typewriter,  the  sewing  machine,  and  the  self-binding  reaper. 
But  whatever  we  may  think  of  the  accuracy  of  the  comparison  made  by 
Wallace,  we  recognize  that  the  great  majority  of  the  inventions  that  now 
enter  into  the  world’s  work  were  made  during  the  last  century.  One  hun- 
dred years  ago  the  farmer  was  still  the  slave  of  the  fiail  and  the  sickle, 
and  his  produce  was  laboriously  dragged  to  market  by  horses  at  the  rate 
of  two  miles  an  hour,  or  poled  down  the  river  on  flat  boats.  New  York 
City,  in  1801,  had  no  greater  conveniences  for  the  health  and  comfort  of 
her  citizens  than  London  had  in  the  days  of  Chaucer.  Three-fourths  of 
the  population  of  the  United  States  lived  within  fifty  miles  of  the  At- 
lantic, and  of  the  five  and  one-half  millions  of  people  less  than  half  a 


3 


million  lived  west  of  the  Alleghenies.  There  were  not  more  than  two 
stationary  steam  engines  in  the  country.  A French  engineer  laid  out  the 
city  of  Washington,  and  an  English  physician  of  the  West  Indies  drew  the 
plans  for  the  National  Capitol.  The  steamboat  of  John  Fitch  and  the 
locomotive  of  Oliver  Evans  were  looked  upon  as  the  fanciful  contrivances 
of  impracticable  fanatics,  although  the  railway  and  the  steamboat  have 
made  possible  the  conquest  of  the  continent. 

In  our  future  competition  for  the  world’s  trade  great  national  works 
will  be  undertaken,  and  many  of  them  will  be  completed  in  your  time. 
We  must  have  a waterway  with  a depth  of  twenty*one  feet  connecting 
Lake  Erie  with  the  Hudson,  and  a fourteen-foot  channel  from  the  Chicago 
River  to  the  Gulf  of  Mexico.  These  waterways,  in  connection  with  the 
Nicaragua  Canal  soon  to  be  built,  will  give  cheap  transportation  for  the 
raw  materials  and  manufactured  goods  from  the  interior  of  our  country 
to  the  markets  of  Europe  and  Asia.  Millions  of  acres  of  arid  lands  in  the 
West  will  soon  be  made  fertile  by  irrigation  plans  carried  out  by  national 
or  state  appropriations  or  by  private  enterprise.  In  all  these  great  un- 
dertakings the  men  of  your  profession  will  be  the  leaders.  Another  im- 
portant work  of  the  twentieth  century  in  which  you  will  take  part  will 
be  the  improvement  of  the  appliances  already  in  use.  The  possibilities 
of  steam,  steel  and  electricity  have  not  been  exhausted.  One  of  the  most 
valuable  lessons  that  men  learned  in  the  last  century  was  that  every  hu- 
man contrivance,  however  perfect  it  may  seem,  can  be  improved.  In  a re- 
cently published  article  Andrew  Carnegie  wrote:  “It  is  scarcely  within 
the  bounds  of  belief  that  any  cheaper  process  of  making  steel  remains  to 
be  discovered.’’  He  had  in  mind  the  Siemens  open-hearth  furnace  which 
was  invented  only  a few  years  before  he  wrote,  and  which  is  even  now 
supplanting  the  Bessemer  process  of  1864.  Why  should  not  some  member 
of  the  class  of  1901,  of  the  Armour  Institute,  discover  a method  of  mak- 
ing better  and  cheaper  steel  than  can  be  made  by  the  open-hearth  process? 
Some  one  will  surely  make  the  discovery;  the  uses  of  steel  will  be  mul- 
tiplied, our  present  annual  product  of  11,000,000  tons  will  be  greatly  in- 
creased, and  there  will  be  an  enlarged  demand  for  skilled  engineers  at  the 
mines  and  factories. 

In  1825  Barlow,  the  English  scientist,  declared  that  an  electro-mag- 
netic telegraph  was  impossible,  but  in  1832  Henry  had  a line  working 
successfully,  in  his  laboratory.  Ten  years  later  Morse  had  sent  his  im- 
mortal message  from  Washington  to  Baltimore  and  demonstrated  the 
commercial  value  of  his  invention.  Now  the  contract  has  been  let  for 
la3dng  a .sub-marine  cable  six  thousand  miles  in  length  connecting  Can- 
ada and  Australia. 

In  1852  Roebling  built  his  beautiful. suspension  bridge  over  the  Niag- 
ara River,  with  an  810-foot  span.  Twenty  years  later  he  and  his  son  aston- 
ished the  world  by  their  construction  of  the  Brooklyn  bridge,  with  a 
1,600-foot  span.  Plans  have  recently  been  completed  for  a bridge  across 
the  North  River,  with  a 2,700-foot  span.  American  engineers  have  built 
bridges  in  Australia,  Burmah,  and  South  America.  The  construction  of 
the  bridge  at  Hawkesbury,  Australia,  gave  a splendid  example  of  the  re- 
sourcefulness of  the  modern  engineer.  Soft,  deep  mud  made  it  impossible 
to  build  the  span  on  piles  adjacent  to  the  piers.  So  it  was  put  together 


4 


on  a staging  erected  on  a pontoon.  When  the  span  was  finished  the  pon- 
toon was  towed  to  the  piers  at  high  tide,  and  hy  the  ebbing  of  the  tide  the 
span  was  gradually  lowered  into  postion.  When  the  modern  engineer 
finds  the  ordinary  appliances  inadequate  for  his  purpose  he  employs  the 
moon  to  work  for  him,  lift  his  span  and  put  it  on  its  piers. 

Future  improvements  in  railway  construction  will  demand  the  high- 
est skill  of  the  trained  engineer.  Already  there  are  190,000  miles  of  rail- 
way in  the  United  States,  crossing  63,000  bridges,  and  constructed  and 
equipped  at  a cost  of  $10,000,000,000  during  the  last  two  generations.  If 
we  could  have  a panoramic  view  of  the  trains  that  have  left  Baltimore 
during  the  last  seventy  years  it  would  give  us  a good  idea  of  the  changes 
that  have  taken  place  in  railway  construction  between  the  days  of  the 
coach  with  mast  and  sail  and  the  Titanic  “consolidation”  locomotive. 

The  results  that  have  been  accomplished  in  cheapening  the  cost  of 
transportation  in  the  last  thirty  years  indicate  what  great  changes  we 
may  look  for  in  the  next  generation,  as  the  outcome  of  work  in  which 
some  of  you  will  be  engaged.  The  old  wooden  cars,  weighing  sixteen  tons 
and  carrying  a paying  load  of  fifteen  tons,  have  been  superseded  by  the 
modern  .pressed-steel  cars,  of  no  greater  weight,  but  carrying  a load  of 
fifty  tons  each.  The  old  thirty-ton  locomotive,  struggling  with  thirty  cars 
and  a paying  load  of  450  tons,  has  retired  in  favor  of  the  Mogul  and  Con- 
solidation, which  can  haul  fifty  steel  cars  with  a paying  load  bf  2,500 
tons.  In  1867  the  total  freight  carried  in  the  United  States  was  75,000,- 
000  tons,  for  which  the  charges  were  $400,000,000,  or  $5.33  per  ton.  In 
1899,  976,000,000  tons  were  carried  for  $922,000,000,  or  95  cents  per  ton. 
This  great  and  rapid  reduction  in  freight  tolls  has  been  the  most  potent 
factor  in  enabling  us  to  send  abroad  this  year  nearly  $1,500,000,000  in 
the  products  of  our  farms  and  factories.  Future  improvements  that  will 
reduce  the  cost  of  construction,  maintenance,  and  operation  will  bring 
about  a still  further  cheapening  of  the  cost  of  transportation.  A fortune 
awaits  the  man  who  will  invent  an  angle-bar  that  will  make  the  joint  as 
durable  as  the  rail.  Fame  and  fortune  both  wait  on  the  genius  who  will 
discover  a cheap  method  of  permanently  preventing  the  oxidation  of  iron. 

In  my  opinion  the  most  interesting,  , and  perhaps  the  most  important, 
work  that  will  engage  the  talents  of  the  twentieth  century  engineer, 
architect,  and  scientist,  will  be  the  making  over  of  the  nineteenth  century 
city.  During  the  last  fifty  years  the  cities  of  the  world  have  increased  in 
population  with  a rapidity  never  before  paralleled.  In  most  instances  this 
growth  has  been  so  sudden  and  tremendous  that  we  have  been  able  only 
partially  to  adapt  modern  appliances  to  the  rapidly  changing  conditions, 
and  often  after  a very  clumsy  fashion.  And  yet,  a hundred  years  ago,  there 
was  nothing  to  suggest  the  possibility  of  the  development  within  a cen- 
tury of  our  great  interior  cities.  If  a member  of  the  class  of  1801,  of  Har- 
vard College,  had  given  as  his  commencement  address  an  accurate 
prophesy  of  the  majestic  city  that,  before  the  century’s  close,  would  rise, 
“like  an  exhalation”  from  the  marshes  at  the  mouth  of  the  shallow  creek 
at  the  headwaters  of  Lake  Michigan,  he  would  have  been  regarded  as  the 
greatest  imaginative  writer  of  his  times.  But  if  I should  attempt  to  de- 
scribe tonight  what  I believe  will  be  the  Chicago  of  the  next  century  I 
should  have  to  use  language  that  would  seem  equally  extravagant. 


5 


Many  of  the  improvements  that  are  to  take  place  in  our  city  you  will 
witness  when  you  return  to  celebrate  your  fiftieth  anniversary,  and  some 
of  you  will  take  part  in  planning  and  carrying  them  out.  Some  of  the 
changes  that  will  come  we  can  now  predict,  but  many  more  will  be  the 
outgrowth  of  further  inventions  and  discoveries.  In  the  well-built  and 
well-governed  city  of  the  twenty-first  century  the  water  supply  will  be 
purified  at  its  source,  or  in  reservoirs.  The  sewage  will  be  used  to  fer- 
tilize a municipal  farm  upon  which  all  who  wish  can  find  honorable  em- 
ployment. All  wires  and  pipes  will  be  laid  in  tunnels  under  the  streets, 
and  through  these  tunnels  most  of  the  passenger  and  freight  traffic  will 
be  carried.  There  will  be  no  rails  on  the  surface  of  the  streets,  and  all 
the  traffic  in  the  streets  will  be  moved  by  electricity.  Cheap  and  rapid 
transportation  will  carry  the  city  workers  to  their  homes  in  houses  with 
yards  on  the  outskirts  of  the  city.  There  will  be  no  over-crowded  tene- 
ment houses,  no  congested  areas,  no  plague  spots,  in  the  new  city.'  But, 
in  their  places,  there  will  oe  public  baths,  lavatories,  and  playgrounds, 
and  municipal  lodging-nouses,  wash-houses,  and  kitchens.  Light,  heat, 
and  power  will  be  generated  in  the  form  of  electricity  at  adjacent  mines 
and  brought  to  the  city  by  underground  cables.  The  twenty-first  century 
city  will  be  a clean,  light,  healthy  city,  intelligently  adapted  to  the  com- 
fort and  security  of  all  its  inhabitants.  Those  of  us  who  are  living  at  the 
opening  of  the  twentieth  century  will  be  glad  enough  to  see  the  transfor- 
mation begin. 

I have  barely  touched  upon  a few  features  of  the  work  of  improving 
present  appliances  which  will  engage  the  attention  of  your  profession  in 
the  immediate  future.  But  surely  these  illustrations  are  sufficient  to 
show  the  great  opportunities  that  are  in  store  for  you,  and  to  arouse 
that  strong  feeling  of  enthusiasm  without  which  great  achievements  are 
impossible.  Sir  Humphrey  Davy,  scientist,  poet,  and  philanthropist,  who 
began  life,  as  he  once  wrote,  with  “a  look  toward  future  greatness,”  has 
disclosed  to  us  the  secret  of  its  attainment.  “Almost  all  great  deeds,”  he 
said,  “arise  from  a plenitude  of  hope  or  desire.  No  man  ever  had  genius 
who  did  not  aim  to  execute  more  than  he  was  able.”  With  the  inspiration 
that  you  have  received  during  your  years  of  study  you  will  aim  to  accom- 
plish something  more  than  the  carrying  out  of  the  plans  of  others  or  the 
mere  improvement  of  their  discoveries.  You  must  he  inventors  as  well 
as  engineers.  The  engineer  and  the  architect  must  often  carry  out  the 
wishes  of  their  clients  against  their  own  judgment.  Therefore,  give  all 
the  time  and  energy  that  you  can  command  to  original  work  and  the  dis- 
covery of  new  uses  to  which  the  forces  of  nature  can  be  applied.  Elec- 
tricity alone  furnishes  an  inxehaustible  field  for  the  genius  of  the  in- 
ventor. What  an  infinity  of  uses  awaits  the  invention  of  a light,  cheap, 
and  powerful  storage  battery!  With  such  a battery  the  problem  of  aerial 
navigation  will  be  solved  and  the  airship  will  become  a practical  utility 
for  many  purposes,  including  life-saving  from  shipwrecks. 

It  has  been  estimated  that  an  invention  which  shall  secure  the  com- 
plete combustion  of  all  the  carbon  in  coal  will  cause  a saving  of  100,000,- 
000  tons  in  the  world’s  present  annual  consumption  of  coal.  Who  will 
earn  the  blessings  of  his  fellow-men  by  inventing  a cheap  and  healthy 
method  ventilating  and  cooling  in  hot  weather  and  tropical  climates  the 

6 


int'  dwellings,  hospitals,  and  factories?  The  inventor  is  the  bene- 

fa  - race.  Davy’s  safety  lamp  has  saved  thousands  of  lives. 

aities  for  usefulness  are  greater  than  his.  With  our  en- 
^edge  of  the  laws  of  nature,  the  useful  inventions  of  the  next 
ought  to  exceed  in  number  and  importance  all  those  of  the  last 
ceix  A repetition  of  the  thrilling  experiences  of  Davy,  Morse,  Roent- 

gen, an  X the  other  renowned  inventors,  who  seemed  to  touch  the  limits 
of  human  ingenuity,  may  seem  to  timid  minds  impossible; 

“Yet  all  experience  is  an  arch  wherethro’ 

Gleams  that  untravel’d  world  whose  margin  fades 
Forever  and  forever  when  I move.” 

Twenty  years  ago  Brichsen,  one  of  the  ablest  surgeons  of  London, 
publicly  announced  his  belief  that  “surgery  had  reached  its  limits.”  But 
since  this  sentence  was  uttered  surgery  has  achieved  some  of  its  most 
wonderful  and  beneficent  triumphs.  One  thing,  however,  the  inventor 
must  bear  in  mind:  Few  great  inventions  in  the  future  will  be  the  result 
of  accident  or  aimless  investigation.  They  will,  on  the  contrary,  be  the 
outgrowth  of  patient,  laborious,  intelligently  directed  research.  The  de- 
vices that  will  secure  the  perfect  combustion  of  coal,  prevent  the  oxida- 
tion of  iron,  give  practical  utility  to  the  storage  battery,  wireless  teleg- 
raphy, and  sub-marine  telephony  must  be  wrought  out  by  the  painstaking 
process  of  eliminating  obstacles  and  adding  improvements,  one  by  one. 
Other  inventions  of  far-reaching  importance  will  be  made  by  brilliant  in- 
vestigators, who  will  start  with  a clear  conception  of  what  they  wish  to 
accomplish  and  work  out  the  result  with  infinite  attention  to  details. 

Some  men  have  a genius  for  scientific  investigation,  as  others  have 
an  aptitude  for  languages,  music,  or  mathematics.-  But  most  of  these 
geniuses  lack  time  and  opportunity  for  research.  Oliver  Lodge,  in  a re- 
cently published  article  on  the  “Scope  and  Tendencies  of  Physics,”  says: 
“It  was  the  uniquely  endowed  laboratory  of  the  Royal  Institution,  London, 
which  enabled  Faraday  to  realize  his  genius.  Men  able  to  experiment 
are  not  lacking;  laboratories — research  laboratories — and  the  leisure  to 
employ  them,  are  the  urgent  need  of  all  countries  at  the  present  time.” 
I would  like  to  suggest  to  some  man  of  wealth  and  public  spirit,  who 
wishes  to  emulate  the  wise  philanthropy  of  the  founder  of  Armour  Insti- 
tute, and  mark  the  opening  of  the  twentieth  century  by  an  act  of  generos- 
ity in  harmony  with  the  enlightened  spirit  of  the  age,  that  he  establish 
and  endow  in  connection  with  this  school  a chemical  and  physical  labo- 
ratory designed  exclusively  for  original  research.  Let  the  endow- 
ment be  generous,  and  let  the  income  be  devoted,  not  to  the 
salaries  '' of  teachers  or  scholarships  for  students,  but  to  provide 
ample  incomes  and  all  possible  facilities  for  specially-trained 
scientists,  who  shall  give  their  time  and  energy  to  inventions 
and  discoveries  of  practical  utility.  It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  bene- 
ficial results  that  would  fiow  from  such  investigations.  The  man  who 
will  give  his  name  to  such  a munificent  endowment  will  be  remembered 
for  his  broad-minded  liberality  centuries  after  his  ninety-nine-year  leases 
have  run  out  and  all  his  other  investments  have  ceased  to  bear  interest. 

I have  now  spoken  briefiy  of  the  encouraging  openings  which  the  new 
century  discloses  to  the  enterprise  of  the  engineer  and  the  ingenuity  of 


7 


the  inventor.  But  the  work  of  both  is  strictly  practical,  utilitarian,  com- 
mercial. Whatever  the  engineer  can  construct,  or  the  inventor  devise, 
has  a money  value,  or  it  is  valueless.  Now,  anything  that  can  be  valued 
in  money  has  not  the  highest  value.  The  value  of  truth  can  not  be  ex- 
pressed in  money,  or  in  any  other  terms;  for  truth  is  the  sum  of  all  values. 
The  bankers  of  Florence  would  give  nothing  for  Galileo’s  discovery;  Lon- 
don brokers  would  not  accept  from  Newton  the  law  of  gravitation  as 
collateral;  and  Lord  Rayleigh  could  get  no  bid  from  Wall  Street  on 
argon.  The  noblest  activity  of  the  human  intellect  is  the  pursuit  of  truth 
for  its  own  sake.  You,  therefore,  who  have  learned  the  value  of  truth, 
must  be  not  only  engineers  and  inventors,  but  scientists;  for  the  scientist 
is  the  simple  seeker  after  pure  truth.  In  this  search  you  will  be  free 
from  the  sordid  demands  of  clients  and  employers,  free  from  the  oppres- 
sive atmosphere  of  commercialism,  free  from  the  superstitions  and  tradi- 
tions of  the  past,  free  at  last  to  approach,  without  fearing  the  truth,  the 
profoundest  mysteries  of  the  universe.  The  wise  and  great  of  all  past 
ages  will  guide  you  to  the  end  of  their  journey,  and  where  they  leave  you 
alone  with  Nature  you  will  begin  your  journey  and  explorations  in  the 
illimitable  realm  of  undiscovered  truth.  Who  can  describe  the  exultation 
of  the  traveler  in  this  vast,  mysterious  realm?  Who,  that  has  not  felt  a 
similar  joy,  can  understand  the  thrill  of  ecstacy  that  overcomes  the 
“watcher  of  the  skies,  when  a new  planet  swims  into  his  ken?” 

Of  one  thing  I am  convinced — that  the  earnest  seeker  after  truth,  as 
his  knowledge  of  the  material  world  increases,  will  approach  the  unre- 
vealed secrets  of  the  universe  in  a spirit  of  devout  reverence.  We  may 
admit  the  demonstrations  of  Copernicus  and  Galileo,  of  Kepler  and  New- 
ton, of  Buffon  and  Darwin,  and  find  temporary  mental  repose  in  the  neb- 
ular hypothesis,  but  what  do  we  know  of  the  origin  of  matter?  In  the 
presence  of  the  tremendous  truths  of  the  conservation  or  energy  and  the 
indestructibility  of  matter  we  can  only  exclaim,  as  Hutton  did  a century 
ago:  “In  the  economy  of  the  world  I can  find  no  traces  of  a beginning 
and  no  prospect  of  an  end.”  We  may  penetrate  the  remotest  confines  of 
the  domain  of  knowledge,  and  ascend  to  the  loftiest  heights  of  specula- 
tion; we  may  tell  rhe  composition  and  temperature  of  the  stars,  and 
measure  the  orbits  of  unseen  planets;  but  who  has  discovered  the  incep- 
tion of  organic  life?  “There  is  a path  which  no  fowl  knoweth  and  which 
the  vulture’s  eye  hath  not  seen.”  We  may  hold,  as  it  were,  the  universe 
in  the  palm  of  our  hand,  as  Goethe  held  the  skull  of  his  friend,  Schiller, 
but  in  the  universal  sphere  we  can  find  no  solution  of  the  awful  mystery 
of  human  life,  any  more  than  the  philosopher  could  discover  within  the 
narrow  walls  of  bone  the  secret  of  the  power  of  the  dead  poet.  The  mon- 
ument to  Newton  in  Westminster  Abbey  tells  us  that  the  greatest  of  sci- 
entists “asserted  in  his  philosophy  the  majesty  of  God  and  exhibited  in  his 
conduct  the  simplicity  of  the  Gospel.”  The  man  of  science  of  the  twen- 
tieth century,  even  with  his  increased  knowledge  of  the  material  world 
and  his  enlarged  control  over  the  forces  of  nature,  should  approach  the 
inner  mysteries  of  the  universe  with  the  same  spirit  of  humility  and  rev- 
erence toward  the  truth  which  added  lustre  to  the  fame  of  the  great  phi- 
losopher of  the  seventeenth  century. 

Now,  with  all  this  bright  prospect  before  you  of  useful  accomplish- 


8 


ment  in  all  the  departni^nts  of  thought  and  activity  in  which  you  are  in- 
terested, what,  you  are  asking  yourselves,  are  the  conditions  essential  to 
success?  Men  differ  in  their  ambitions  and  aspirations,  and  in  their 
opinions  as  to  what  constitutes  success.  Of  one  thing  you  may  be  sure — 
that,  twenty-five  years  from  now,  your  idea  of  success  will  be  different 
from  what  it  is  today;  and  fifty  years  hence  you  will  hold  still  another 
opinion  of  the  ultimate  object  of  life.  Individual  success,  it  seems  to  me, 
consists  in  a certain  completeness  or  perfection  of  a design  for  which 
Nature  has  furnished  the  framework.  The  oak  and  the  violet  are  each  a 
success,  but  you  can  not  make  ship-timber  out  of  the  one  or  extract  per- 
fume from  the  other.  A blind  man  would  be  a failure  as  an  astronomer, 
though  he  might  become  a brilliant  musician.  That  man,  therefore,  is 
fortunate  who  discovers  early  in  life  what  Nature  intended  him  for,  and 
sets  about  filling  in  the  framework.  With  some  the  work  is  done  quickly, 
while  others  devote  weary,  and  what  seem  profitless,  years  to  the  task, 
iviorse  was  past  fifty  before  he  could  convince  Congress  of  the  value  of  his 
invention.  At  forty-seven,  Audubon  was  painting  all  day  and  selling 
his  pictures  after  dusk  in  the  streets  of  London.  No  success  is  worth 
having  that  is  not  worth  earning;  and  it  has  a peculiar  sweetness  if  it 
has  been  earned  by  hard  struggle  and  patient  waiting.  It  does  not  appear 
that  men  of  science  are  apt  to  make  wealth  the  gauge  of  success.  Sir 
Humphrey  Davy  refused  to  make  a fortune  by  taking  out  a patent  monop- 
olizing the  sale  of  his  safety  lamp;  Linnaeus,  the  devoted  botanist,  after 
he  had  overcome  his  early  poverty,  wrote  to  a friend,  half  humorously, 
half  pathetically:  “Once  I had  plants  and  no  money;  now,  what  is  money 
good  for  without  plants?”  Whether  you  are  destined  to  attain  fame  and 
immortality,  or  to  acquire  wealth  and  power;  or,  better  still,  to  make 
some  wonderful  discovery;  or,  best  of  all,  to  confer  some  great  benefac- 
tion on  the  race,  the  opportunities  for  earning  success  in  all  these  forms 
were  never  so  great  as  they  are  today.  The  spirit,  therefore,  which 
should  dominate  and  direct  the  life  of  the  young  man  who  enters  on  his 
career  at  the  beginning  of  this  century,  is  the  spirit  of  expectancy.  He 
should  begin  life,  not  merely  with  hope,  which  is  the  universal  animal  in- 
stinct of  youth,  but  with  confident  expectation  that  he  will  witness  in  the 
future  triumphs  as  great  as  any  that  have  been  achieved  in  the  past;  that 
he  will  take  part  in  these  triumphs,  and  that  his  conscientious  labors  will 
be  surely  crowned  with  success. 

You  will  each  of  you  do  well  to  take  with  you  on  your  journey  two 
servants,  who  are  not  always  companionable,  but  whom  you  must  train 
to  serve  you  in  harmony.  Enthusiasm  ^and  Patience  have  always  been 
the  faithful  attendants  of  the  men  who  have  succeeded. 

If  you  have  not  already  adopted  the  habit,  let  me  recommend  to  you 
a practice  that  you  will  find  of  inestimable  value.  Select  some  one  sub- 
ject and  make  yourself  master  of  all  that  can  be  known  about  it.  It  is  im- 
material what  the  subject  is,  only  let  it  be  as  limited  as  possible,  and,  if  it 
is  one  in  which  you  are  interested,  so  much  the  better.  The  essential  idea 
is  to  know  everything  about  one  thing.  I have  heard  a story  of  a German 
scientist  who  in  his  youth  determined  to  acquire  a complete  knowledge 
of  the  universe.  He  soon  found  it  necessary  to  confine  his  studies  to  the 
solar  system.  Then  he  determined  to  limit  his  investigations  to  the  earth 


9 


and  its  occupants.  When  he  began  to  realize  the  shortness  of  life  com- 
pared with  the  infinite  bounds  of  knowledge,  he  rapidly  restricted  his  re- 
searches, first  to  organic  life,  then  to  animals,  then  to  the  group  of  artic- 
ulates, then  to  lepidopterous  insects,  then  to  the  family  of  moths,  then  to 
one  genus,  then  to  a single  species;  and,  finally,  devoted  the  last  fifty 
years  of  a long  life  to  the  study  of  the  antennae  of  the  Atticus  Gecropia. 
“And  what  benefit,”  exclaimed  the  narrator,  “did  this  philosopher  derive 
from  the  accumulation  of  such  a mass  of  accurate  information?”  ”Why, 
no  one  was  ever  able  to  impose  upon  him  the  antennae  of  any  other  moth 
for  those  of  the  Atticus  Gecropia T It  is  not,  however,  the  information 
that  you  acquire  by  this  complete  mastery  of  one  subject  which  will  help 
you,  but  the  power  of  discrimination  which  the  practice  gives.  It  is  the 
best  antidote  for  undue  self-esteem;  for,  when  you  know  one  thing  thor- 
oughly you  become  thoroughly  aware  how  little  you  know  about  all  other 
things.  This  habit  of  mind,  which  you  can  develop  by  the  mastery  of 
one  subject,  will  enable  you  to  estimate  correctly  the  value  of  your  own 
judgments  on  other  subjects  concerning  which  your  opinion  must  be  large- 
ly a matter  of  inference  or  deduction.  It  will  also  furnish  you  a valuable 
test  by  which  to  gauge  the  thoroughness  and  accuracy  of  the  work  of 
others. 

It  is  surprising  what  a gulf  there  is  between  a superficial  and  a com- 
plete knowledge  of  any  subject.  Wh^  you  have  bridged  this  gulf  once 
you  will  forever  afterwards  be  disp  asfied  with  slovenly  work  and  super- 
ficial knowledge  in  yourself  and  .Luers.  “Finish  one  picture,  sir,  and  you 
are  a painter,”  said  West  to  Ms  pupil  Morse,  who  was  almost  in  despair  at 
his  teacher’s  repeated  corrections.  Darwin  devoted  eight  years  to  the  study 
of  barnacles  and  the  preparation  of  his  treatise  on  cerripedes.  Huxley  pro- 
nounced this  work  of  Darwin  “a  piece  of  critical  self-discipline,  the  effect 
of  which  manifested  itsef  in  everything  he  wrote  afterward.”  We  can 
all  practice  this  same  sort  of  self-discipline.  If  you  have  a taste  for  pic- 
torial art,  master  the  subject  of  line  engraving;  if  your  fondness  is  for 
literature,  make  one  poem  your  constant  companion.  If,  on  the  other 
hand,  your  inclinations  lead  you  to  physical  and  chemical  research,  know 
everything  about  one  substance.  If  natural  history  claims  your  affections, 
make  an  intimate  friend  of  one  animal  or  flower.  The  acquaintance  of  a 
lifetime  will  not  exhaust  their  interest  and  attractiveness.  Let  us  sup- 
pose, for  example,  that  you  have  selected  as  your  special  friend  the  com- 
mon tawney-red  butterfly  of  our  summer  fields,  the  Danaias  Archippus. 
What  entomologist  can  tell  you  the  comparative  weights  of  the  egg,  the 
larva,  the  chrysalis,  and  the  fly?  How  long  is  the  life  of  the  insect? 
What  is  its  habitat,  its  daily  and  nocturnal  habits?  What  senses  has  it? 
Has  it  senses  which  the  larva  has  not?  If  larvae  from  the  same  set  of 
eggs  are  fed  on  different  plants  will  there  be  any  corresponding  differ- 
ences in  the  butterflies?  In  what  stage  of  existence  does  this  frail  crea- 
ture resist  the  frosts  of  winter,  as  a butterfly,  chrysalis,  larva,  or  egg? 
Can  the  size  of  the  butterfly  or  the  color  of  its  wings  be  changed  by 
changes  in  the  food  of  the  larva  or  by  any  treatment  of  the  chrysalis? 
When  you  shall  have  answered  all  these  questions  you  will  find  no  one 
who  will  give  you  a cent  for  the  information,  but  the  habit  of  accurate 
observation  which  you  will  have  acquired  may  be  worth  to  you  fame  and 
fortune.  Rayleigh’s  discovery  of  argon  has  been  ascribed  to  his  fastid- 
iousness respecting  the  weight  of  nitrogen. 


10 


The  twentieth  century  engineer  will  be  a busy  man,  as  you  will  soon 
realize.  You  will  become  engrossed  in  the  practical  work  of  your  profes- 
sion, and  will  find  little  time  even  for  scientific  investigations.  Do  not, 
however,  on  this  account  neglect  entirely  the  claims  of  literature  and  art. 
As  Goethe,  the  man  of  letters,  found  strength  and  refreshment  in  scien- 
tific research,  so  the  man  of  science  may  drink  invigorating  draughts 
from  the  cool  fountains  of  literature.  Newton  was  wont  to  refresh  him- 
self with  history  and  chronology.  Morse  found  recreation  in  Homer, 
Spencer,  and  Dante.  Twenty  minutes  a day  devoted  to  reading  will  take 
you  in  a year  through  the  greatest  classic  poems  of  Hebrew,  Grecian,  Ro- 
man, and  English  literature;  and,  with  the  returning  years,  you  will  ex- 
perience the  keen  delights  of  renewing  old  friendships,  for  each  re-read- 
ing will  disclose  to  you  new  truths  and  beauties.  If  you  begin  the  day 
by  communion  with  these  great  spirits  you  will  take  with  you  to  its  end 
thoughts  that  will  often  help  to  lighten  its  drudgery  and  illuminate  its 
gloom. 

So  far  I have  spoken  only  of  the  opportunities  for  individual  devel- 
opment and  success  that  awaits  you  in  the  new  century.  Let  me  say  in 
closing  a few  words  respecting  the  duties  and  responsibilities  that  rest 
upon  you  and  all  other  young  men  of  the  country  in  your  capacity  as 
citizens.  Here  your  opportunities  are  the  measure  of  your  obligations. 
Citizenship  is  something  in  which  everyone  can  succeed.  Every  member 
of  the  Republic,  therefore,  should  be  first  of  all  a good  citizen.  The  man, 
however,  who  has  received  education,  wealth,  or  other  especial  advantages, 
owes  a two-fold  duty  to  the  State — the  duty  of  simple  citizenship  and  the 
duty  of  making  a full  return  for  the  benefits  which  he  has  received. 
Whatever  else  he  may  accomplish,  the  man  who  falls  short  of  the  fulfill- 
ment of  these  obligations  fails  to  make  his  life  complete.  One  of  the  ear- 
liest laws  passed  by  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth  was  a statute  imposing  a 
fine  upon  those  who  refused  to  accept  public  office.  There  seems  to  be 
little  call  for  the  enactment  of  such  a statute  at  the  present  time,  but  we 
do  need  some  moral  force  that  shall  arouse  men  to  a quickened  sense  of 
the  obligations  of  citizenship. 

Science  teaches  that  the  history  of  organic  life  always  has  been,  and 
always  will  be,  not  only  that  the  stronger  live  and  the  weaker  perish,  but 
that  the  stronger  survive  through  the  death  of  the  weaker.  To  man, 
alone,  has  been  granted  the  power  to  stay  in  a measure,  for  the  benefit 
of  his  fellow-men,  the  workings  of  this  relentless  law.  The  protection  of 
the  weak  by  the  strong  differentiates  man  from  the  brute;  and  the  extent 
and  character  of  the  protection  given  to  the  weak  by  the  strong,  in  any 
community,  mark  the  degree  of  civilization  which  it  has  attained.  This 
Republic  was  founded  for  the  purpose  of  securing  to  its  citizens  the  rights 
of  life,  liberty,  and  the  pursuit  of  happiness.  Are  the  hopes  of  the  found- 
ers being  fulfilled?  A system  of  government  under  which,  although  all 
men  have  the  right  to  pursue  happiness,  only  some  attain  it,  has  not 
reached  an  ideal  development.  With  many  thousands  in  this  country 
the  pursuit  of  happiness  is  still  nothing  but  a pursuit.  It  is  true,  there 
has  been  great  progress  during  the  last  century  in  the  treatment  of  the 
weak,  helpless,  and  unfortunate,  especially  in  the  care  of  the  diseased, 
the  insane,  and  the  feeble-minded,  and  in  the  reformation  of  the  criminal 
and  vicious.  But  much  still  remains  to  be  done  for  the  amelioration  of 
those  classes. 

The  greatest  dangers  that  now  threaten  the  safety  of  the  Republic 
lie  in  the  rapid  concentration  of  population  in  the  large  cities,  the  concen- 
tration of  immense  wealth  in  the  hands  of  a few  individuals  and  corpora- 
tions and  its  corrupt  use  and  the  concentration  of  governmental  functions 
in  the  executive  branches  of  the  Nation  and  States.  As  I have  already  in- 
timated, the  men  of  your  profession  will  play  a leading  part  in  the  physi- 
cal regeneration  of  our  cities;  but  their  moral  and  political  regeneration 
can  only  be  accomplished  by  the  combined  efforts  of  all  the  citizens.  We 
greatly  need  in  the  administration  of  our  American  cities  the  services  of 
trained  specialists  in  engineering,  finance,  and  hygiene. 


11 


In  a rich  Democracy,  great  inequalities  in  the  distribution  of  wealth 
are  a sign  of  weakness  in  the  form  of  government  or  disorder  in  the  so- 
cial system.  A nation  in  which  the  total  wealth  is  constantly  increasing, 
but  where  the  poor  are  becoming  poorer  and  increasing  in  numbers,  is 
drifting  toward  revolution.  War  and  the  preparations  for  war  increase 
the  misery  of  a nation’s  poor,  not  only  through  economic  waste,  but  be- 
cause the  familiar  contemplation  of  the  horrors  of  distant  conflicts  dulls 
the  national  perception  of  distress  at  home.  Tennyson  was  one  of  the 
wisest  and  most  sympathetic  students  of  the  great  social  problems  of  his 
age.  As  he  saw  Europe  converted  into  a military  camp,  and  witnessed 
the  abject  condition  of  many  of  his  countrymen,  he  uttered  the  universal 
prayer  of  this  generation: 

* * * “Ah!  when  shall  all  men’s  good 

Be  each  man’s  rule,  and  universal  Peace 
Lie  like  a shaft  of  light  across  the  land 
And  like  a lane  of  beams  athwart  the  sea 
Thro’  all  the  circle  of  the  golden  year?” 

Peace  is  essential  to  the  highest  moral  and  economic  development  of 
the  nation.  The  world  has  heard  much  of  the  glories  of  war  on  the  one 
hand,  its  deeds  of  valor,  endurance,  and  heroism — and  on  the  other,  of  the 
horrors  of  its  conflicts,  but  the  world  has  given  too  little  heed  to  its  fear- 
ful economic  waste.  Some  conception  of  the  terrible  import  of  the  cost 
of  war  may  be  had  if  we  consider  that,  of  the  total  expenditures  of  this 
Nation  since  its  foundation,  amounting  to  sixteen  billions  of  dollars,  two- 
thirds,  or  over  ten  billions,  have  been  made  on  account  of  the  Civil  War 
of  1861.  This  sum  would  have  provided  for  the  manumission  of  all  the 
slaves  at  an  average  of  $1,000  each,  and  left  over  six  thousand  millions 
of  dollars  to  be  used  in  the  economic  development  of  the  country. 

If  we  can  avert  war  in  the  coming  century,  our  country  will  realize 
the  hopes  of  the  founders  of  the  Republic.  In  our  population  there  will 
always  be  the  strong  and  the  weak,  but  there  should  be  no  submerged 
tenth.  There  will  always  be  a lowest  stratum  in  the  composition  of  all 
human  societies,  but  the  aim  of  our  civilization  should  be  constantly  to 
diminish  the  size  and  raise  the  level  of  this  lowest  stratum.  We  have  in 
this  country  unbounded  natural  resources  and  accumulated  capital;  and, 
with  an  enlightened  national  sentiment,  intelligently  expressed  through 
faithfully  executed  laws,  there  will  be  no  starvation,  no  pauperism,  no 
grinding  poverty  in  our  society. 

The  success  of  any  system  of  popular  government  depends  upon  the 
tireless,  determined  insistence  of  the  people  that  the  laws  and  those  who 
make,  execute,  and  interpret  them  shall  at  all  times  faithfully  reflect  and 
carry  out  the  wishes  of  the  people.  In  so  far  as  they  fail  to  do  this,  the 
government  ceases  to  be  a government  by  the  people.  The  historian  of 
the  United  States,  writing  a century  hence,  will  note  that  toward  the 
end  of  the  nineteenth  century  the  people  began  to  manifest  a spirit  of  in- 
difference to  the  character  of  the  laws  and  the  manner  of  their  execution; 
that,  owing  to  this  indifference,  the  national  legislature  showed  a dispo- 
sition to  deal  with  matters  that  the  founders  of  the  Republic  thought  it 
would  be  wiser  to  leave  to  the  local  legislatures;  and  that  the  representa- 
tives of  the  people  in  the  various  legislative  bodies  showed  an  inclination 
perfunctorily  to  pass  laws  respecting  the  important  matters  of  taxation 
and  appropriations,  solely  on  the  recommendations  of  the  executive  de- 
partments. It  rests  with  us  of  this  generation  .to  determine  how  the  his- 
torian shall  conclude  his  narrative.  Upon  you  especially,  the  young  cit- 
izens of  the  Republic,  will  fall  the  responsibility  of  resolving  that  this 
spirit  of  indifference  shall  not  prevail.  Your  opportunities  for  success  in 
your  chosen  calling  are  great;  your  opportunities  for  rendering  useful 
service  to  the  Republic  are  still  greater.  Let  me  repeat,  in  closing:  Your 
opportunities  are  the  measure  of  your  responsibilities.  Be  true,  there- 
fore, to  the  ideals  of  your  profession  and  loyal  to  your  duty  as  citizens; 
and  the  honor  which  you  will  reflect  upon  your  Institute,  will  be  new 
proof  of  its  power  for  good,  and  of  the  enlightened  wisdom  of  its  founder. 


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